Monthly Archives: April 2014

I’m sorry to say that Handsome and I live a life that borders on the side of mundane and even geeky. We love us our hobbies and we will listen/watch/read the ramblings of anyone who shares a similar interest and who captures our attention, via written, spoken or video blogs, podcasts, articles and other media (we spend far too much time glued to the cooking and home channels too). Thus you might find us on a Friday evening on the I-95 (a brutal stretch of road not dissimilar to the M25 or North Circular) in bumper to bumper traffic, listening to some fella talk about how he grows vegetables in repurposed canoes, or brews beer in a repurposed fridge, or some guy talk about how he makes the best ever antipasti and instructing us how to recreate his family’s favorite dish.

As someone that considers herself relatively well travelled (don’t make me repeat my tagline about living and working on six continents), I find it difficult to get my head around my lack of jet setting in the past year. My previous work assignments have allowed me free reign to travel here and there, visit home almost whenever I wanted, and certainly the financial freedom to do so.

I don’t mean to seem ambitious. I don’t suppose you have noticed, but ambition is looked down upon a little bit by the cool kids. Anyone that seems a bit desperate is uncool and a laissez faire attitude is the best way to be, apparently. So obviously, I don’t want you to think we are desperate… oh no… except we ARE! We are desperate to get some real enjoyment out of our hobbies and we are devoting more and more time to making sure that we pursue our hobbies, talk about them, put a bit of money aside for them, and make them SUSTAINABLE. Even if we are knackered and couldn’t possibly imagine any effort more than plonking ourselves on the sofa, there are always chores to be done around our hobbies that drag us out of our stupor and onto our feet into the sheer joy of creating… making… DOING something. Continue reading put on your serious face…→

Handsome knows I love a bit of Gordon Ramsey. I don’t let him know how much, but believe me, it’s a lot… So he humors me by buying me Gordon’s cookbooks and I pore over them marking all the recipes I want to try first. This one came out almost number one from my Christmas gift book (Home Cooking). Handsome and I were looking for an alternative to rice or potatoes, but in the freezing cold of winter. This salad came up top trumps and we had it with my pork tenderloin with lemon and oregano and a big green salad. It was delicious and we had thirds of the lentil salad. I recommend you try it and put your variation on it depending on the flavors you love. The lentils just suck them up and if you give them a while to develop… your tongue will be rewarded… Gordson’s recipe included chives and a different proportion of ingredients. I prefer it my way (obviously) as there are more lentils, so more leftovers for next day lunch!

Gosh I’m tired. Kind of exhausted actually. When life takes over and you run with it, you forget to stop and take a breath. We work hard, we play hard, we run from one event to the other. Even when we are on a relaxing night in a hotel, the pressure to have a good time can be unrelaxing in itself. The only true moment to myself I have had in the last few weeks is Saturday and Sunday morning, having breakfast for ten minutes each. Both times, I had good food, cooked by me, in the open air, reading something I wanted to read. And just for a second, I was able to forget that within five minutes I had to be on my way somewhere, or firing up the laptop to send some emails.

Cooked right, you could leave your baby back ribs unflavored and still end up with juicy, fall off the rib amazingness that it’s hard to beat. Cover the meat in a dry spicy rub and you have a lip smacking tongue sizzling treat for your tastebuds. Cover it in a wet reduced mixture of amazing spices and sugars and you’ll be sucking your fingers long after the ribs are gone. I can’t decide between these two. Handsome likes the dry, I like the wet. We both want to eat them concurrently so we get the pleasure of them side by side. So cut your slab of ribs in half and cook half one way and the other in the wet. Follow these instructions and your ribs will be juicy, tender and heart warming every time. Good luck!

Yesterday, my Mum told me off for writing on my blog that I don’t like my job much. She told me I have to take that blog post down, in case I get fired. Seriously? I think I should start off by saying that my blog is supposed to be an honest and true representation of how I feel at the moment, tales about what is happening in my weird and wonderful life, and a little glimpse into my dreams and aspirations. I already moderate what I say on here, I have to be careful about peoples’ feelings and I don’t much like naming people, because this is my blog, not theirs. Therefore, the only thing I can really be honest about is the way I feel, the way things affect ME and the ups and downs I have on a day to day basis. Continue reading a mother’s censure…→

The game’s on, the party’s started, the next phase of operation beer brewing masters is complete. Our Handsome works long hours. He leaves the house at 6 and gets home around 6.30 (poor fella only lives 5 mins from work…) The only thing that distracts him from this schedule is talking to his kids, picking up his kids or some other kid emergency. And now apparently beer brewing! Last night, Handsome was so excited at the prospect of bottling his hard brewed beer, that he left work at 5.30!

This told me the man is serious, and that I should take his beer brewing VERY seriously. So I cleared the decks and everything that had been on the kitchen counters in the teeny tiny kitchen got relegated to the sitting room. Continue reading never fear, there’s beer…→

I am a HUGE fan of any food that includes alcohol. Not because I’m a drunk, oh no! But because I think that alcohol and food pairings are like culinary alchemy and I like to be the wizard in charge. Any time I see a likely looking recipe I want to go straight home and cook it and I happened to see this recipe for cupcakes on a day I was going to a birthday party. Divine intervention methinks! Especially as I knew the party in question would involve lots of white wine, so why not bring Chardonnay cupcakes?

I really enjoy surfing through other cooking blogs and the first place I always look is the latest blog post, then the recipes. Lucky for me the two were combined in this case. I happened upon Katie Arkenberg’s blog via twitter and I suggest you all take a look at her blog, pearlsplusgirls.com And if you get the chance, make these cupcakes, they are delicious, and most important of all… everyone loves them!

I’m not shy about pointing out that I have lived and worked on five continents. It’s not a stretch to imagine that I will get to six at some point in my life, but I can’t see myself getting to seven. I can’t imagine a world in which I would go to work in Antarctica, but really, who knows? As it stands, the other one I have never even visited is South America. I have lived and worked in each for at least a year and I think that gives one a unique opportunity to really understand a place and get to know its ways and culture. Continue reading breakfast across five continents…→